What’s up everyone? General discharge here. If this is your first time with us, our voices are disguised so we can give you information on just about anything without being detected. Today’s video is going to be discussing the Air Force’s special warfare officers, which are CROs or combat rescue officers, stos or special tactics officers and TAC Pos, which are tactical air control party officers. We’re going to be going over their training pipelines, what they do and who they are.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the video. Before we jump into it, make sure to take a moment and show us some love and support by liking our video and subscribing to our channel. Your support is our lifeblood. Do not hesitate to ask us questions. In the comments section below, we check everything CROs, stos and TAC Pos are all AFSpEC war officers that each bring a specific skill set.
CROs are the officer version of pararescuemen, also referred to as pjs, and are personnel recovery and command and control specialists. Being experts at combat search and rescue or CSR, they plan, manage and execute these six tasks of CSAR prepare, report, locate, support, recover and reintegrate isolated personnel and material. CROs conduct strategic, operational and tactical level planning provide battlestaff expertise manage theater personnel recovery operations and conduct combat operations. Stos are officers who manage the training pipeline and equipping of Air Force ground special operations deploying as team leaders or mission commanders in combat seizing and controlling airstrips combat search and rescue guiding airstrikes and fire support using air assets for special operations and tactical weather observations. While they may lead them, stowes are not pjs, ccts or special recon airmen.
However, they do have a thorough understanding of how to lead their missions. TACP officers, formerly known as alos, which stood for Air liaison officer, are officers who are aligned with conventional and special operations forces that provide precision terminal attack guidance of us and coalition fixed and rotary wing close air support aircraft, artillery and naval gunfire and also establish and maintain command and control communications and advise ground commanders on the best use of air power. While the training they receive differs, the process to become any of these officers are similar. Each of their assessment cycles are in two phases, which are phase one and two. We will go over the Stowe and CRO assessment first, then we will go over the TAC PO last.
Keep in mind that for any of these you will need a minimum of a bachelor’s degree to even be considered for these career fields. Currently, Stowe and CRO have four assessments each year. In phase one, a panel of career field experts review and stratify applications submitted by the deadline. Those who are selected by the panel are invited to attend phase two, which is a one week evaluation conducted in Hurl Burt Field, Florida about two months after phase one. During phase two, candidates are given extensive psychological tests and interviews, have briefing and writing skills evaluations, problem solving and leadership ability evaluations ruck marches with 50 to 70 pounds of gear up to 12 miles, running up to 8 miles at a time.
Water confidence drills like treading, drownproofing and underwater swims. While this is only a week, it is very clear that a lot happens in this week. If you are selected after completing phase two, that means that you are greenlit to attend the pipeline training. You can enter this process from Air Force ROTC officer training school or do an interservice transfer. A tidbit about the OTS route civilians can go through phase one and two and be active duty from the BASP, which stands for battlefield airmen sponsor program and if selected from both phases, they can then attend OTS before they move on to the respective pipeline.
A stoe will attend the same schools a CCT attends. If you want to learn more about the CCT pipeline, go check out our video on ccts. The link is in the description a CRO attends most schools a PJ attends, but they do not attend the paramedic course. If you want to see our video on pjs, that is also in the description. Okay, on to TAC P officers.
They pretty much have the same phase one and two process that we discussed earlier. Their phase one has a board that selects who gets to move on to phase two. Their phase two is known as top t which stands for TACP officer phase two and is one week long. Candidates will be tested on the same criteria that their Stowe and CRO counterparts are minus the water competency events as TAC P does not do that. Those who are selected after the two phases will attend the TACP officer prep course, TACP officer basic course, the joint firepower course, basic alo skills course, and Sear school.
We did a video on TACP’s if you want to see it go check it out. The link is in the description. We’re going to leave several links to resources that will shed some more light on their respective communities. Make sure to give how to be a PJ and ones Ready’s YouTube channels a look as they are great resources for anything to do with AFSpEC war. How to be a PJ also has a website called be a PJ that discusses these subjects too.
We will also leave you with the official Air Force application processes for Stowe, CRO, and Tac Po. Just check the description once the video’s over. And here’s all of our previous air Force videos. Go give them a look. You’d be surprised with what you’ve learned.
Well, that is the down and dirty of the Air Force’s special warfare officers. If you learned something from this video, make sure to give us a like and subscribe to our channel. As always, thank you for watching. What would you like to see next? All your friends are subscribing to general discharge and you don’t even want to be here?